Its twice now that I have had to face pro-Trump non Americans. The first was a French philosopher who apparently has the ear of French power. My reaction was completely over the top and unacceptable -- I told him that he peddled complete bullshit and not even worth discussing, because his premise were false and based on the Alt- right crazy narrative. I cannot remember all the crazies he pulled but here are the highlights:
- Chelsea Clinton is not Bill' daughter
- Hillary Clinton is gay
- That Clinton hid/destroyed 30,000 emails
- Clinton planned Benghazi
- Clinton Foundation is a front
- etc etc
Now I came across the same crap just yesterday, my reaction was different. I ignored it! The second guy, also a French man by birth, but who lived most of his adult life in Texas, made some good points: Hey if Trump was able to not pay taxes for 20 years -- good for him, paying tax is not a right its an obligation and as such reducing your tax bill is a good thing. I don't want to be bogged down in details, but the only way Trump could do this is if most of his revenues was considered capital gains (you only set-off your capital gains losses against capital gains). Anyway, I decided that there was nothing that I could say to convince him, and decided to change the topic.
Needless to say that he's smart enough to figure out what I did, and called me on it. I simply said that I completely disagree with his reading of the US system, that he bough the BS from the Alt right, which he is free to do, that many of the stuff he pulled was true but out of context -- the whole Benghazi thing is a case and point, if after 9 different investigation the GOP could find no wrong doing, the same with the emails. They spend months and huge resources and still found (almost) nothing.
The two aspects I noted in both my conversations was that both speakers had little if any respect for women, the philosopher was this Ivory tower blowhard that I generally find despicable, and continue to prove his point. The second one who lived most of his adult life in Texas -- Texas the state that Trump is 99% certain to win! Texas a state where if you paint a pig in red they will vote for him (BTW red is the color of Republicans). Was less of a blowhard, but had bough the exact same bullshit that Philosopher was peddling
In a sense, its a problem we all have, and with the internet its easier today than ever before, we can disregard the information we find objectionable and read only on what we agree. If you are pro Trump you read Breitbart and some Fox News -- although they too have cooled their jets. You see all the 'crimes" of Clinton and you read that "the bitch should be in jail" of course its not entirely clear why she should be in jail what offense she had committed (maybe being married to Bill...). On the pro-Clinton side there are a number (a very large number) of web writings that shows how brilliant she is and how well she will do.
I must say that I am happier with my second interaction with a Trump supporter. I was calm and pleasant, still though he is a moron, and picks his winners badly (I am starting to think that Trump is going to get "bitch" slapped (yeah I know it was on purpose)). The greater Trump's failure the more likely the GOP will walk back from the abyss. One can only hope!
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